beef-steak
(ˈbiːfˈsteɪk)
a. A steak or thick slice of beef, cut from the hind-quarters of the animal, suitable for grilling or frying.
| 1711 [see b.] 1715 Spect. No. 639 (1734) IX. 13 He tossed his Hat into the Frying-pan, and made a Beef-stake of it. 1783 Johnson in Boswell III. 449 Let you and I, Sir, go together and eat a Beef-steak in Grub-Street. 1849 Dickens Dav. Copp. xviii. 162, I am taken home..have beef-steaks put to my eyes. |
b. attrib., as in beef-steak pie, beef-steak pudding; Beef-steak Club, a celebrated society founded by Lord Peterborough; the members wore a gridiron upon their buttons; beef-steak fungus, a fungus, Fistulina hepatica, somewhat resembling a beef-steak in appearance; also beef-steak mushroom.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 9 ¶8 The Beef-steak and October Clubs are neither of them averse to eating and drinking. 1841 Marryat Poacher x, She was carving a beefsteak-pie. 1851 Mayhew Lond. L. I. 359 A good beef-steak supper. 1886 J. Stevenson Brit. Fungi II. 183 Fistula..F. hepatica..Edible and nourishing, but rather coarse, and not a very pleasant flavour. Known as the beef-steak fungus. Slices exactly like beef-steak. 1895 W. H. Gibson Our Edible Toadstools & Mushrooms 213 The beefsteak mushroom—Fistulina hepatica... Its upper surface was dark meaty red or liver colored. 1953 J. Ramsbottom Mushrooms & Toadstools xix. 231 Fistulina hepatica, the Beef-Steak Fungus, looking somewhat like an ox-tongue with a glutinous upper surface, yellow tubes and streaky flesh exuding a red juice. |
Hence Beefsteaker, a member of the Beefsteak Club.
| 1883 Cornh. Mag. (article) Beefsteakers. |
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▸ beefsteak tomato n. orig. U.S. any of a number of large, firm varieties of tomato.
| 1896 N. Amer. Rev. June (Advt. section), *Beefsteak tomato ketchup. 1964 L. Linton Of Days & Driftwood vi. 35 Twenty-four of Ken's tomato plants yielded one season 300 pounds of beefsteak tomatoes. 1994 Up Here Mar.–Apr. 38/2 We could grow wheat, corn or beefsteak tomatoes in our backyard gardens! |